Xiaomi and Oppo aim to replace traditional cameras with their new phones, Xiaomi 13 Ultra and Oppo Find X6 Pro.
Xiaomi has launched its latest Ultra smartphone, the Xiaomi 13 Ultra. It has one of the most sophisticated camera hardware in a smartphone.
It follows what Oppo did with its Oppo Find X6 Pro, using flagship-level sensors on all the cameras, and expands on it. Xiaomi 13 Ultra has a quad camera system, which uses the 1-inch Sony IMX989 sensor, aided by three Sony IMX858 sensors.
Xiaomi 13 Ultra vs Oppo Find X6 Pro
Xiaomi 13 Ultra is a direct competitor to Oppo Find X6 Pro. Both phones have great camera systems and have the backing of legacy camera brands. Not only that, both phones are equally stacked in terms of specifications, features and prices. Let’s compare both the phones and check which is the better of the two.
Display & Design
Both phones have one thing in common, a big large circular camera array on the back that screams that they’re camera phones, and the branding of legacy camera brands Leica and Hasselblad featured prominently.
Xiaomi 13 Ultra features a quad camera setup arranged on the edges of a trapezium. Leica branding sits in the middle of the camera array. Oppo Find X6 Pro has a triple camera setup. The camera array is divided into two parts, the top hosting the primary and ultrawide cameras and the bottom hosting the periscope telephoto lens. Hasselblad branding sits just below the two cameras in the upper part.
Xiaomi 13 Ultra and Oppo Find X6 Pro also have one more common thing in design, both feature a leather back design, with Find X6 Pro going for a dual-tone back, where the top part is made up of glass itself.
Turn over to the front, and both phones feature similar displays, while Xiaomi 13 Ultra has a slightly bigger bezel. Xiaomi 13 Ultra has a 6.73-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 3200 x 1400 pixels and a refresh rate of 120Hz. It can go upto 2600 nits in brightness and has Dolby Vision and HDR10+ certifications. It is protected by Gorilla Glass Victus protection, not the latest Victus 2.
Oppo Find X6 Pro has a slightly larger 6.82-inch AMOLED display with a resolution of 3168 X 1400 pixels and a refresh rate of 120Hz. It can go upto 2500 nits in peak brightness and supports Dolby Vision and HDR10+ certifications. Both phones offer two of the brightest displays on a smartphone yet.
Performance & Battery
Both Xiaomi 13 Ultra and Oppo Find X6 Pro come with Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 SoC. The same chip we saw in recent Android flagships such as Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra & Xiaomi 13 Pro is currently the best-performing chipset on the Android side.
Xiaomi 13 Ultra comes with a 5,000mAh battery and has support for 90W wired fast charging and 50W fast wireless charging. It also supports 10W reverse wireless charging. Oppo Find X6 Pro also comes with a 5,000mAh battery but has a faster 100W wired fast charging. It also supports 50W fast wireless charging and 10W reverse wireless charging.
Camera & Quality
Oppo launched Oppo Find X6 Pro with a claim that it has a three-main camera system, as the phone uses three flagship image sensors on the lenses of the phone. Xiaomi does the same thing for its four-lens system! Xiaomi 13 Ultra and Oppo Find X6 Pro use the same 50MP 1-inch Sony IMX989 sensor for the primary camera. Xiaomi 13 Ultra uses the 50MP Sony IMX858 sensor for the secondary cameras, while Oppo Find X6 Pro uses the Sony IMX890 sensor for the secondary cameras. Sony IMX858 is a new sensor that debuted in Xiaomi 13 Ultra, while Sony IMX890 has been used as the primary sensor in OnePlus 11.
Regarding the lenses in Xiaomi 13 Ultra, the primary camera has a variable aperture lens, which can switch from f/1.9 to f/4.0. Unsurprisingly, it is slated equivalent to a 23mm lens and supports OIS. There are three secondary cameras; the first is an f/1.8 122° ultrawide camera equivalent to a 12mm lens. Then there are two telephoto lenses; the first has an optical zoom of 3.2x and an aperture of f/1.8. The next one is a periscope telephoto with an optical zoom of 5x, with an aperture of f/3.0. There’s also a ToF sensor in the camera system.
Coming to Oppo Find X6 Pro, the primary camera uses an aperture of f/1.8 and supports OIS, equivalent to a 23mm lens. It doesn’t come with a variable aperture like Xiaomi 13 Ultra. The phone has an ultra-wide camera with a 110° field of view and f/2.2, equivalent to 15mm and a periscope telephoto lens with an optical zoom of 2.8x and an aperture of f/2.6, equal to 65mm.
The Xiaomi phone comes with Leica branding, while Oppo has Hasselblad. Both legacy camera makers have brought their respective styles of camera processing to these phones. With Xiaomi 13 Ultra, there are two modes of shooting to choose from: Leica Vibrant and Leica Authentic. It also comes with various Leica filters embedded in the camera app. Oppo Find X6 Pro, on the other hand, introduces Hasselblad portrait mode, which simulates the depth of field of classic Hasselblad lenses XCD30 and XCD80. It also has Oppo’s custom Marisilicon X chip for image processing.
On the video capture side, Xiaomi 13 Ultra trumps the Oppo phone by supporting 8K@24fps capture on all three lenses. It can capture 4K@60fps with all the lenses as well. It supports Dolby Vision HDR 10-bit recording as well. Oppo Find X6 Pro supports 4K@60fps capture with all the lenses. It also supports Dolby Vision, HDR and 10-bit video recording. Even with all the video recording capabilities on the rear camera, both phones limit the recording resolution to 1080p@30fps on the front camera.
Both phones have very capable camera systems and are one of the most stacked in terms of camera hardware in flagship phones. Xiaomi 13 Ultra seems to Edge ahead with its two telephoto lenses system and a wider ultrawide sensor.
Here are some of the official camera samples of Xiaomi 13 Ultra:
Take a look at the official camera samples of Oppo Find X6 Pro:
Software & User Experience
Software on Xiaomi and Oppo phones is as different as it gets. Both phones feature their custom skins, MIUI 14 and ColorOS 13. Both are based on Android 13, but you wouldn’t find them similar in terms of design aesthetics.
Both skins come with a plethora of features and are supremely customisable. You get every feature you could think of in these skins, such as theming support, game modes, AOD customisation, font customisation, native app lock support, and more.
Price & Value For Money
Xiaomi 13 Ultra is available in three variants:
- 12GB + 256GB – 5,999 Yuan / $870 / €792 / £699
- 16GB + 512GB – 6,499 Yuan / $943 / €858 / £758
- 16GB + 1TB – 7,299 Yuan / $1059 / €963 / £851
Oppo Find X6 Pro is available in:
- 12GB + 256GB – 5,999 Yuan / $870 / €792 / £677
- 16GB + 256GB – 6,499 Yuan / $942 / €857 / £731
- 16GB + 512GB – 6,999 Yuan / $1015 / €922 / £786
Both phones are currently available in the Chinese market only. Oppo has yet to mention anything about the international availability of the phone, while Xiaomi has mentioned that the Ultra will launch in the global markets in the coming months.
Conclusion
As we can see, Xiaomi matched the pricing of Oppo Find X6 Pro with the launch of the Xiaomi 13 Ultra, with slightly better camera hardware than Oppo. But we can only judge these phones with the Chinese pricing as it is proportional to the European pricing when they finally launch here. The Xiaomi phone, for example, could cost more than €1,299/£1,099 in the European and UK markets, as that’s the launch price for Xiaomi 13 Pro. Xiaomi 13 Ultra would be pricier than Xiaomi 13 Pro when it launches here. And we don’t know how Oppo will be pricing its latest flagship in the European market when it finally launches here. Let’s reserve the final judgement after both the phones are launched here!
But comparing both phones, we can say one thing, Xiaomi and Oppo have done an excellent job of making stellar camera-centric phones with the best camera hardware available in the market. Samsung has lots of catching up to do with its Galaxy S24 Ultra to reclaim the throne of camera king, as it sits with Xiaomi and Oppo now.
